RAF Manston Spitfire/Hurricane museum

This is a great museum but I supposed Im a bit bias as there's a picture of my Dad in his hurricane hanging up on the wall there!
He was based at Manston in 1942 and its from there that he and his flight section flew over to Dieppe to support the Canadians landing there. Thats when we realised attacking a fortified harbour is not the way forward.. hence the Mulberry Harbour in 1944!
 

I agree. Called in there three weeks ago
The cafe attached to the museum is quite good for a greasy spoon as well.

The one at Tangmere (West Sussex) Link is larger but they do charge an entrance fee.

I was surprised that at Tangmere they had on display the remains of Sgt Dennis Noble's Hurricane. It was dug up at almost the top of my old road in Hove.

They had a shock when they were digging it up as Dennis was still inside. Through some quirk of fate I happened to hear the inquest that followed.
He had been killed by a single bullet - it was the only bullet hole in the plane that was found.

He was a wing man. His Commander had written a report which basically said Dennis was quite inexperienced. Dennis had been there and they started to turn towards a potential dogfight that was some distance away and then he was gone. He seems not have been involved in a dogfight but caught by a stray bullet.

One of the witnesses who gave evidence was now a local priest who when he was 12 years old had seen the plane from his back garden gliding down on its way to the crash. He had hopped on his bicycle and cycled over to see what had happened.

They dug up the original coffin and put the rest of his remains inside a fresh coffin. Apparently in the war, they only had to find seven pounds of body bits to hold a funeral. The rest of the weight in the coffin was ballast.
I do not know what bit of Dennis was buried the first time but it seems that they filled in the hole and buried the plane PDQ as soon as they had enough body parts.

They have just renamed a local pub after him.
 


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